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Show NORTH COUNTY NEWSPAPERS F Page 19 ifficials showcase healing of National Forest Land Thursday, May 17, 2007 II COPY Caleb Warnock DAILY HERALD Coconuts and mules are be: ing deployed to heal National Forest land in Lindon. Federal, state and local officials of-ficials gathered at Dry Canyon Trailhead in Pleasant Grove on Thursday morning to showcase miles of illegal roads that they have blocked with boulders, fences and gates and seeded in an effort to heal the land. Last year alone more than six miles of illegal roads were hand-seeded to bring back vegetation veg-etation destroyed by residents using ATVs, said Marcy De-Million, De-Million, Natural Resource staff officer. Some of the roads have been covered with long mats of coconut fiber, which help the seeds to germinate. Over the next couple of years the mats will naturally biodegrade, leaving thick native grasses in their wake to cover the ATV tracks. A "spaghetti bowl" of illegal trails have gouged the hills, the legacy of a "cultural tradition" tradi-tion" of ATV riding that must change, said Pam Gardner, Ji' ft ' ; 4 , " (1- 1 J - - v.. . MARIO RUIZDaily Herald Gordon Edwards ofHieh Mountain SDravins svravs for noxious weeds around the Dry Canyon area in Lindon, on May 10. The U.S. Forest Service is Pleasant Grove district ranger, spearheading a project to restore the Wasatch Front foothills from non-native weeds and illegal motor vehicle use. To stop the damage, officials have put up fences and boul ders, but residents have cut the fences down with chain saws, winched boulders away or piled rocks around them until they could drive over them. Traditionally, residents who live near the hillside have used the hills for ATV tracks, but just as residents must trailer their boats to appropriately use them, ATV owners are slowly coming to realize they must use only designated trails on Noxious weeds are the No. 1 threat to our environment. envi-ronment. Gordon Edwards INVENTED MULE WEED SPRAY PACK National Forest land, Gardner said. The closest trail is in American Fork Canyon. Since police and forest rangers have set up sting operations in and around Dry Canyon to cite illegal ATV users us-ers and replaced boulders and fences, the number of ATV riders rid-ers has fallen slowly, allowing work to heal the land to begin, she said. More than $200,000 has been spent on the effort over the past three years to go along with 1,200 volunteer hours. Next year, work will begin to repair at least 22 more miles of illegal trails between Battle Creek Canyon and American Fork Canyon, Gardner said. The work will take several years. Officials also showed off some innovative methods on Thursday to control weeds, namely a horse and mule team that tracked up and down the hillsides carrying 24-gallon tanks of weed poison. Contract employees are criss-crossing the hillsides to destroy Dalmatian Dalma-tian toadflax, yellow starthistle and whitetop, among other TUTORING Tf TTR. r Readim, Math, Writink, Custom Tutoring, GED Prep., and ACT Prep. 79 S. State Orem, UT 229-CLUB (2582) m weeds that are poisonous to some animals and have aggressively aggres-sively taken over vast areas of wilderness around the West. Gordon Edwards of Elba, Idaho, said he invented the mule weed spray pack and started a business called High Country Sprayers. He is a county weed supervisor in Idaho and said he spent several frustrated years looking for someone to hire for the job before starting his company. He and his crews now cover hundreds of miles doing spray work. "I invented this set of spray ers out of necessity," he said of his invention, a set of spray tanks and mechanics that straddle a mule. "Noxious weeds are the No. 1 threat to our environment." The poisonous weeds have now invaded dozens of acres and must be stopped before they spread to uncontrollable numbers, he said. Such weed control used to be done by helicopter he-licopter and airplane, but that killed too much good native vegetation along with the noxious nox-ious weeds. Work to reseed ATV tracks and weeds will continue for several more years, with $100,000 recently approved for local use over the next year, officials said. Work also will begin this year to install a restroom at Dry Canyon Trailhead, and money has been approved to pave part of the parking area, Gardner said. A proposal is now being floated to pave the access road. 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